A minutes silence was held before the kick off for Mitchell Joseph who died while playing for St. Josephs in Swansea last week. Carlos Indjai and Cai Owens were missing from last week’s side with Alex Gammond and Andre Griffiths returning to the starting line up. Kieran Cullen’s ban is up so he and Shane Williams returned to the bench. Former players Chris Curtis and Chris Allen started for Cwmamman.Cwmamman started the better of the two sides and put us under pressure from the off. On 7 minutes they were awarded a free kick just outside the area, the ball was played to the far post and with great difficulty we cleared the ball. Luckily for us no Cwmamman player managed to get a touch and turn the ball in. We started to get into the game and on 17 minutes took the lead. The ball was played over the defence for Sacha Walters to run on to it and shoot high into the net before Chris Curtis could close him down. Cwmamman broke from a Lido corner and it took a great block from Steve Cann to deny them an equaliser. We went two up on 28 minutes with a piece of magic from Mark Jones. Again the ball was played through the middle for Mark to run on to, he had a defender in tow and Chris Curtis closing him down. He went around Chris but was forced wide but from a couple of yards he back heeled the ball just inside the far post. Three minutes later it should have been 3-0, some great passing and movement put Josh Webber in space, he crossed for Sacha Walters and from no more than 4 yards he blazed his shot out of the ground when it was easier to score. The game turned in the final 10 minutes of the half when Jordan Vickers was sent off for a challenge with Sacha Walters who was booked. We again should have scored a third but Elliot Thomas shot wide after being set up by Josh Webber. Mark Jones had a header cleared as we looked to make our advantage count. However right on half time we lost our man advantage when Alex Gammond saw red for bringing down an attacker just outside the area, he was adjudged to be the last man and had to go.

In comparison to an eventful first half the second appeared to have been affected by Alex Gammond’s red card. For much of the half it seemed as though the sides were going through the motions and the competitive element was missing for long periods. Shane Williams had replaced Sacha Walters at half time and his attacking down the left caused problems for Cwmamman. For much of the half there was little goalmouth action but on 68 minutes Josh Webber was fouled, it looked inside the area but we were awarded a free kick just outside. In the latter part of the game Cwmamman attacked but they didn’t create a goal scoring opportunity. Liam McCreesh tried to catch Chris Curtis out with 5 minutes to go, we were awarded a free kick just outside the area and he hit the free kick just under the crossbar. Chris managed to punch the ball clear and Cwmamman attacked again but shooting wide when well placed. Finally they got a goal 2 minutes into added on time but they ran out of time in looking for an equaliser.

Lido side

Steve Cann – 2 Josh Doyle – 3 Sean Hanbury – 4 Carl Evans – 5 Alex Gammond – 6 Sacha Walters – 7 Elliot Thomas –

8 Liam McCreesh – 9 Mark Jones – 10 Andre Griffiths – 11 Josh Webber

Subs – 12 Shane Williams for Sacha Walters 45 – 14 Kieran Cullen for Josh Webber 81 – 15 Jack Todd for Mark Jones 86 – 16 Jack Fleming – 17 Leigh de Vulgt